Saturday, June 5, 2010

EDIT - IMPORTANT NOTE! It seems BBC America did NOT air the new episode tonight as expected, putting the US airings three weeks(!) behind the UK airings. I have no idea as to why they would delay airings even further, but I can't hold off writing these reviews three weeks at a time. Two week delays was what I said when I started this feature, and two weeks is what you're going to get. And if io9 is also going to post the reviews at the same time, then so shall I. Sorry if you consider it to be spoilers, but I have a schedule to work by.

2nd EDIT: Re-Post to make everyone happy.

Here it is (again)! Another This Week in Doctor Who... I really wish US premieres weren't two (now THREE) weeks later than the UK...

Episode 7 - "Amy's Choice"

This episode is a strange one, not just because its transition from the previous episode seems a bit too sudden, but just because in general it's just very strange, yet all too familiar. The episode starts off five years after Amy's adventures with the Doctor, with her and Rory now living in a quiet village north of Leadworth; oh and now she's pregnant. See, like I said, it's sudden and kind of a lot to take in at first... and then, a chirp sounds, and the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are back in the TARDIS, when we last saw them, and they all speak of their collective dream, which is somewhat of an impossibility... until it happens again, and again, and again.

What is this? It's the work of... the Dream Lord, a semi-nonexistent character who dresses very much like the current Doctor himself, but physically looks and acts much differently. He pops in and out of the dreams, taking on many different roles, and kind of reminded me of the Mr. Mxyzptlk character from the Superman comics. But it takes more than just saying the Dream Lord's name backwards to stop him. No, in fact, it's up to Amy, hence the title of the episode, and she must choose which world is real, ultimately choosing to be with The Doctor, or her fiance, Rory. Who will she choose? And who is the Dream Lord?

As bizarre as they may have wanted to make this episode, and it really was, I can't argue that, it's not the first time we've seen an episode like this. "Father's Day" from Series 1 and "Turn Left" from Series 4 come to mind, more so the latter, in which Donna Noble is brought into a life-like vision where her world changes entirely because she turned a different direction on the day she would have met The Doctor, and ultimately she must figure out the mind puzzle and escape it. In that sense, "Amy's Choice" is almost too similar to "Turn Left" to be very, shocking or original, because I feel like I've already seen it before, and could pretty much tell where the episode would go from the start. It wasn't bad, just not overly original.